Grulla made game guns for William Powell and make game guns for William Evans. These are very nice game guns selling for a lot less than in house English-made guns. They also sell in Germany and France were there are fewer but on average wealthier hunters. That is why Grulla is still around. I predict that in not too distant future most Basque makers will go the way of the American Middle Class ie. disappear.
Difficult to disagree with this. I have a pair of William Evans/Grullas due to arrive in the next month or two: would have loved to have bought British but, when you can't get one British gun for the price of a pair of Grullas, it's difficult to do so. Sure there will be people with the bank balance to go the other way (and I'm glad those folk are keeping British production alive) but I doubt I'm going to feel short changed when out in the field and would prefer to spend any surplus money on shooting and vintage guns (where I
can still buy British).
Assuming they manufacturers are passing it on, anyone looking to buy this year is probably going to think twice as a result of the GBP:EUR exchange rate. Last year a pound bought 1.37 Euro, today it's 1.17 thanks to the clowns who didn't think their referendum vote would actually count for anything. I can't see how this won't hurt Spanish makers through reduced sales and/or margin.
I've often wondered what the total annual production is these days for new artisan made guns and how that maps to demand: I just don't see many of my friends (40s-50s, most with pretty comfortable incomes) buying in that market. Those that haven't been fortunate enough to inherit/be given guns seem to take the view that something like a Beretta SP or 486 is all the gun they need - and in many ways they're right. Anyone younger has even less hope of buying these guns new...
It's interesting though that the Spaniards have seemingly chosen to stay traditional whereas a number of smaller British makers seem to have embraced technology, focused on (or at least offer) O/U guns, and appear to be growing their markets. I guess we'll never know if Ugartechea would have been in better shape with an O/U in their catalogue.
